We’re Home!

We’re back home and settling in as a little family of three (or four if you count Dolly, which we do).  We have been completely overwhelmed by the love and support and encouragement and prayers of all of you following along on our journey.  Thank you so, so much!  There are no words to describe how amazing the last couple of weeks have been.  We fell in love with the people and culture and country of Ethiopia and cannot wait until our girl is old enough for us to share more about her birth country with her.  We were so blessed to get to experience this week with 6 other families that were incredible and we made wonderful friends amongst this group.  And of course, we came home with the most amazing blessing and gift of all.  I am so humbled that God (and the people of Ethiopia) have entrusted us with this precious little life.

I’m not going to lie, the trip home was quite brutal.  For starters, it took over 30 hours.  I’m not really sure that there is any way for that to be pleasant under any circumstances.  But on top of it, our little mellow baby decided that the moment we settled into our seats for the flight out of Addis would be a great time to show us just how loudly she can scream.  And then she proceeded to do that off and on for the next 30 hours.  We thought she was just teething (which I still think she has just started given the sudden increase in drool output and non-stop gnawing on fingers) but after a trip to urgent care yesterday because of what we thought was some sort of respiratory infection it turns out she has an ear infection.  We knew she was completely miserable on the way home and now we know why.  Poor baby.  There was one low point for me early in to our flight from Amsterdam to Memphis where I had just changed her first blow-out diaper while she screamed like a cat the entire time and as I returned to our seats to hand her to Matt she projectile vomited all over herself for the entire cabin to see.  Nice, eh?  With the help of a little antibiotics and Tylenol, we’re on the mend I think.  She slept almost twelve hours last night, only waking up twice, and we actually just had to wake her to get her ready for church this morning.

For those of you traveling soon, there were two things that helped a lot that I highly recommend.  I’m sure I can think of others, and as I think of them I’ll let you know.  We could not have done it without her baby carrier (I used a Peanut Shell sling – she and I both love it).  Secondly, the Amsterdam airport has the most incredible (free) baby care lounge.  It is gorgeous and relaxing and has private little pods with cribs and seats for parents.  We had a 7-hour layover and I’m not sure that any of us would have survived the last legs of our trip if we had not been able to hang out there.  Oh, and KLM was amazing.  They have the most incredible flight attendants I have ever encountered.  And the stop in Khartoum – no big deal at all – don’t let that scare you (it did me).

Our families have been amazing in helping us settle in.  They are feeding us and doing our laundry and taking care of everything around the house so that we can focus on Zoe.  And of course, they’re sneaking in a little time with her whenever they can.  We’re both feeling pretty good.  We might very well crash at some point in the near future but so far the transition has been quite smooth.  Dolly is doing better than I ever could have imagined.  She loves the baby and wants to be around her all the time.  She is always trying to lick her face, which we’re going to have to work on because that’s gross.  Yesterday I went in to the nursery while Zoe was napping and Dolly was laying down in front of the crib.  And she gets very concerned every time she cries.  I think she’s going to be very protective.  It’s so cute.

Zoe is doing amazing also.  I swear this is not the same baby we met just over a week ago.  This morning she actually stood on her legs for several seconds.  When we met her last Friday, she wouldn’t even touch the ground with her legs.  And her head control is so much better already.  She was kinda wobbly at first but now she can hold her head up and look around when we hold her on our hip.  And she’s charming and beautiful.  We’re totally in love with her.

We’ve gotta go get her ready for her debut at church, so I’ll leave you with just a couple pictures.

At the airport.  No worse for the wear, I’d say.

Dolly attending to her new friend.

Days Five and Six in Ethiopia

This trip is not for the weak.   We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here, but we are emotionally and physically spent.  Unfortunately about half of our group is or has been afflicted with some sort of malady over the few days we’ve been here.  Matt and I are still healthy and I pray that it stays that way until we are safely back home.

It’s been another busy couple of days.  The Holt staff in Ethiopia have done such a great job of taking care of everything for us while we are here.  They have also packed our week completely full of Ethiopian culture, food, shopping and just an all-around wonderful experience learning about our girl’s country.

Yesterday we headed to the care center first thing and then to the U.S. Embassy.  I wasn’t really concerned about this appointment as there usually aren’t any problems by the time you get to this point in the process, but the emabassy is a bit of an intimidating place, nonetheless.  Thanks to the great work of the Holt staff, I think our entire group of 8 families was in and out in less than an hour.  After the embassy, Dawit, Holt’s in-country guide for traveling families, took us out for pizza which I think really hit the spot with all of us.  Ethiopian food is wonderful but if you’re not used to eating it for every meal it is easy to tire of it rather quickly.  Once we were done there, it was back to the hotel with Liremet.  And we were officially on our own.  Scary stuff, eh?  We had a pretty easy night.  We played with her a little and then she was so worn out she went to sleep at about 6:30.  She was up at 10:30 and 4:00 for a bottle, and then up for good at about 7:00.  I would say that’s not too bad for her first night in an unfamiliar place.  I wish I knew what she was thinking.  It has to be confusing for her to be with people she doesn’t know in a place she doesn’t know.  Not to mention all of the sights and sounds of the city that she had never experienced before.  She was just totally wide-eyed the entire time we were out and about.  She seems to have adjusted to us pretty well so far, but what do I know. A few things about our girl:

• She is the most mellow baby I know.  We still haven’t heard a full-blown cry, just the cutest little squishy-faced whimpering.
• She sucks her index and middle finger to put herself to sleep.  I’m sure this was her self-soothing technique in the care center, but it sure does the trick.  We have tried to get her to take a pacifier, but she hasn’t been too interested.  Hopefully we’re not still trying to wean her off the finger-sucking by the time she goes to kindergarten.
• She’s very quiet and calm around everyone else, but once we get her back to the room by ourselves, she really lights up.  She kicks around and plays with her toys.  She smiles and laughs and coos.  She’s totally adorable.
• She prefers to sleep on her stomach.  I know she’s not supposed to sleep like this according to whoever it is that says how babies should sleep, but I figure if she’s survived sleeping that way for 6 months perhaps we’re okay.  You should see how the babies sleep here.  The nannies wrap them up like burritos, often completely covering their heads with blankets.  The American in me wants to rush over and unwrap every last one of them, but that’s how they do things here.  And the babies all seem to be doing just fine.  Go figure.
• We can already tell a huge difference in her from the first day we met her to today.  For one thing, we see much more of her personality now.  The first day we could barely get a smile out of her and she pretty much just laid there.  Now she laughs and smiles for us and is moving those arms and legs like crazy.  We’ve also started working with her on sitting up with some support and putting weight on her legs and I would say she’s already doing better with these things also.
• We do indeed have some sort of stomach issue.  It doesn’t seem to bother her, but it bothers me when I have to change her nasty diapers.  I thought I had psyched myself up for this part, but I must admit when I unwrapped the first one this morning, I had to take a step back.
• And of course she’s beautiful.

Today, we went back to the care center for the farewell party with the nannies and staff.  They dressed the kids up in their traditional clothing.  I’ll post a picture of Liremet in her outfit below – it was too funny.  The farewell party was a special time in which the staff and parents prayed for the kids, all of the parents were asked to say a little something, and there was a coffee ceremony for us.  The coffee ceremony is very important in Ethiopian culture and involves Ethiopian coffee (which is the best I’ve ever tasted) and popcorn.  This is the second coffee ceremony that we have attended, the first being on our trip to Durame.  I know I’ve said it before, but the Holt staff here – both on the administrative and child care side are so, so good.  We will forever be grateful for all of their hard work that brought our little family together.  We left the kids at the care center and did some shopping this afternoon and now I’m hanging out here with my sleeping baby and my snoozing husband.  I hope to be joining them very soon.  But not before I post some pictures!

Traditional dancing at the Crown Hotel.  Ethiopian dance is so cool.  Particularly this one dance where the girl spun her head around in ways that I swear are not human.

Coffee ceremony at the Crown Hotel

Hanging out during dinner last night.

A little play time in the hotel room this morning.

Farewell ceremony at the care center.  The headband kills me!

Part of our group at Kaldi’s coffee this afternoon pre-shopping.  Kaldi’s is like the Ethiopian Starbucks.

Days Three & Four in Ethiopia

I’m wiped.  We’ve had an absolutely exhausting 48 hours.  The last couple days have been the most unforgettable experience of my life thus far.  We are both completely emotionally and physically spent.  I would go so far as to say this experience has been life-altering.  It’s going to take me a while to process all that we saw and experienced.

We left early Sunday morning for the drive to the town where Liremet spent the first 3 months of her life.  The distance we covered was only about 125 miles, but it took us about 6.5 hours.  Driving through the Ethiopian countryside almost felt like we were watching a movie out the window of the van as we sped by.  Our driver was constantly having to avoid donkeys and cows and goats that were wandering across the road.  There were young children herding cows.  The farmers use some of the most primitive equipment I’ve ever seen.  It’s like the land is frozen in time.  Most of the people live in small round houses made of mud and sticks and straw that look very much like something you would see in National Geographic.  But then next to a mud hut, there is a cell phone tower.  This country is absolutely gorgeous, particularly in the area where Liremet was born.  In that area it is  very lush and mountainous. But in addition to the beauty, we saw so many haunting images of the extreme poverty in this area.  I also know that there is something for me to learn from these people.  They have nothing by our standards, but the people that I saw seemed happy.  As I said, I still have a lot to process.  All I know is that this experience will undoubtedly change the way that I view this world.

We are so grateful that we were given the opportunity to learn more of Liremet’s story and visit the town where she was born.  It was one of the most difficult and emotional things I have ever experienced but I am so, so glad that we we did it.  We also had the chance to visit Holt’s care center in Durame as well as their health center in Shinshicho.  After seeing the work the humanitarian work that Holt does in these communities and visiting with Dr. Fikru, the director of Holt’s work in Ethiopia, I am so proud to be affiliated with them.  And the care that they provide to these children, even in this area where their resources are so limited, is outstanding.

I have so much more to say, but it’s all jumbled up in my brain and I’m way too tired to think about it right now.  On top of the exhausting trip and emotional experiences, we didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.  Our hotel in Durame was nice enough, especially considering it was in rural Africa, but I’m pretty sure that the mattress was just a bunch of 2×4’s laid on a platform. So I’m going to sign off and try to get as much sleep as possible on this, our last baby-free night.

I mentioned in my last post that we were supposed to take custody of Liremet today.  Our travel group decided to delay bringing the children to the hotel with us until tomorrow.  We would have had to take them back to the care center this evening while we went to an Ethiopian dinner and traditional dance show and then pick them up quite late.  It just didn’t make sense.  So we’re going to pick them up on the way to the U.S. Embassy for the visa appointments tomorrow.  This is the very last hoop that we have to jump through before we have to do before we are free to bring Liremet home with us!  Sorry for the pictureless post.  Matt has taken a ton of pictures and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to post some if Liremet and our wi-fi connection allow.  Goodnight!

Day Two in Ethiopia

We had another busy but great day in Ethiopia!  We went to the care center first thing this morning and saw this as we entered the gates.

As Matt zoomed in to take a picture, he realized it was our girl and her nanny.  So cute!

This nanny loves our girl so much.  She dotes on her constantly.  I cannot imagine how difficult it will be for her to say goodbye.  She has also been so sweet trying to help Liremet be comfortable around us.  She let me try to feed her this morning.  I say try because it didn’t go so well.   I made a complete mess of the poor girl and there was cereal everywhere because she was so fidgety.  The nanny took over to show me how to do it properly.  She tucks one of Liremet’s arms behind her and holds on to the other one so that she is pretty much restrained.  Liremet completely relaxed in this position and ate the rest of her meal pretty much mess-free. You would not believe how fast they feed the babies here.  They have lots of babies to feed, so they certainly don’t waste any time.

We got to spend quite a bit of time with her this morning.  I think she warmed up to us quite a bit today.  There was a definite difference in the way she interacted with us today vs. yesterday.  Perhaps it was just her mood, but I like to think that maybe she was a bit more comfortable with us this time around.  And of course we have a few more pictures to share.  We even managed to catch a smile on camera.  Melts my heart.

We spent the afternoon at the National Museum of Ethiopia and St. George’s church and museum.  It was very interesting.  We also saw quite a bit of the city.  Matt took some really great photos, but I’ll save those for another post.  We have an early morning.  We’re going to churh in the morning and then heading down south of Addis to the area where Liremet was born.  We hope to be able to learn more of her story.  It’s going to be a long trip though.  The last group that made the trip said it took 7 hours to drive 125 miles.  We’re also spending the night and have been told to expect our hotel to be more like camping than a real hotel.  I’m really excited about making the trip, but I really think it will be an emotional one.  We’ll be back on Monday and then we get to take custody of Liremet.  So excited about this!

Day One in Ethiopia

I’m sitting at the bar in our hotel after an amazing day, enjoying a Coke Light and some toasted barley and peanuts,  listening to Matt learn about Ethiopian coffee from two bartenders that are very proud of the country and culture.  They’re also giving us lessons on how to properly say please and thank you.  Those of you that are traveling soon, start practicing how to say “thank you” now because it’s a mouthful.  Amesegenalhu.  The people here are so wonderful.  And they are beautiful – the most beautiful people I have ever seen.  And the country, well it’s really hard to put it into words.  I’ll probably just have to wait to talk about Ethiopia until we’ve experienced more of the country and I have pictures to share.

Thankfully, Matt and I were both able to get a good night’s sleep last night.  I think we both got almost 8 hours, and even now at 11pm we both still feel really good.  I highly recommend our jet lag remedy – I’m absolutely convinced it is what has kept us in good shape so far.  That and the Benadryl that we took in the middle of the night to go back to sleep.  I think there are others in our group that hit the wall several hours ago.

So, now to what you’re really interested in.  The story of how we met our girl.  We met our travel group this morning about 9:30 and had a short orientation with the Holt staff before loading up into the van to head to the care center.  The hotel we are at is about a 25 minute drive to the care center.  The streets of Addis are unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  And the ride became even more surreal when we began to hear country music (Tom T. Hall and Kenny Rogers to be precise) playing on the radio of our Ethiopian driver’s van.  I remember recognizing the care center as we turned the corner and my heart beating so fast at the thought of what was about to happen.  As we walked into the care center all of the older children were playing in the front room and the Holt social services director instructed the parents of toddlers to “go find your children”.  One by one, the parents were able to pick out their kids and it truly was one of the most touching things I have ever witnessed.  These kids didn’t run up saying mommy and daddy or anything, but to see these parents reach out to their children for the first time was so special.  They then began to bring us upstairs to the baby room one family at a time.  Holt has hired a photographer and is also providing video for all of the families’ first meeting with their children, which I think is such a great thing!  So anyways, we walk into the baby room and are instructed to “go find your baby”.  I didn’t want to tell the lady that there was no way we would recognize her since we’ve never seen a decent picture.   Luckily I spotted her name on her crib.  And there she was.  She literally took my breath away.  She is so beautiful.  And so tiny.  And she is ours.  That part of it hasn’t really sunk in yet.

So about Liremet.  (And by the way, you may wonder why I’m calling her Liremet instead of Zoe.  For one thing, we will not use her American name in front of the Holt staff.  And honestly, we’ve really grown to love her Ethiopian name.  The nannies say her name in the most beautiful sing-songy way.  And it really seems to fit her.  So perhaps we’ll call her both.  )  She is a very laid back baby.  In fact the head nurse told us so much.  She said she”doesn’t cause any trouble” (I think those may have been her exact words). It took a lot of work for us to get her to crack a smile.  But she doesn’t cry either.  She’s just very mellow.  And I pray she stays that way for at least the next 7 days.  Honestly, she’s pretty indifferent to us at this point.  She definitely prefers her nannies to us, but what would you expect?  I’m sure she’ll warm up to us eventually.  But did I mention how beautiful she is.  We were able to see her twice today and play with her for about 2 hours.  We go back to see her again in the morning.  We can’t wait!

For all of you Holt parents waiting to come get your children.  They are beautiful.  And they look very healthy.  And they are sooooo loved and well taken care of.  I will forever be grateful to Liremet’s nannies who seem to love her so much.  One nanny asked to hold her while we were there and then would hardly give her back. And Liremet really seems to love the nannies too, which I am also grateful for.

Tonight we drove across town to the Hilton for dinner.  It was our first experience in traffic in one of the busier parts of Addis.  It’s an interesting place.  A fascinating, heart-breaking, bustling, intriguing place.  And the driving here – it makes driving in China (which is absolutely insane) look tame!  As we sat in traffic, we had children with their noses pressed up against the window asking for money.  It was heartbreaking.  But then we pulled into the gates of the Hilton and it was this beautiful, luxurious oasis in the middle of it all.  So hard to see the contrast of the poverty outside of those gates and the luxury inside.

But now, for what you’ve all been waiting for, pictures of our little family of three.

We’re Here!

It’s about 11:30 here in Ethiopia – approximately 34 hours from the time we left our house – and we have just settled into our hotel room.  The trip here was long and not all that much fun, but we made it here and I guess that’s what matters!  We met up with 4 of the other families in our travel group along our way and they are all very nice folks.  I think we’ll have a good time together this week.  We haven’t seen any of Ethiopia really because by the time we landed and got through customs it was pretty late.  And it is also really dark.  Apparently they have a power shortage right now so a lot of the city was just black.

One nice surprise when we got here is that our agency moved us to a different hotel than the one that families usually stay in.  The hotel we thought we would be staying in is adjacent to Holt’s care center which is nice, but doesn’t have electricity most of the time.  And I guess it was too full to accomodate all of the families traveling this week.  This hotel has electricity (at least for now) and free wi-fi in our room and from what we’ve seen so far seems nicer than the other one.

We’re having trouble with the international texting number for Twitter.  Anyone used that before?  Not sure what the problem is, but hopefully we’ll be able to actually post to our blog so Twitter won’t really be necessary.

We meet Zoe Liremet about 10:00 tomorrow morning.  So excited and nervous!  Hopefully we’ll have pictures to share soon!  Gotta get some sleep now!

And we’re off!

We’re sitting at the airport waiting for our first flight!  I can’t believe we’re actually doing this.  It’s going to be a long 30-hour journey to Ethiopia (and an even longer one back, I’m sure) but in just a couple days we will be introduced to our girl.  The last couple days have been a complete blur.  I’m so glad that I took this week entirely off work, as I was able to get everything at home organized and in order so that when we come home I don’t have to worry about stuff like that. 

I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to blog because of limited internet access.  And I don’t think we’ll be able to do pictures because of the dial-up connection.  I know that’s what everyone is really interested in.   I do think we’ll be able to tweet (or twitter) however, so either subscribe to our twitter feeds (meretay and robertsmatt) or look on the right-hand side bar of the blog for updates.

We meet Liremet on Friday morning in Addis (which is 8 hours ahead of CST).  We haven’t seen a picture of her since April and don’t have any recent information, so I have no idea what she looks like right now.  I really have no expectations regarding how our first meeting will go, either.  She might be terrified of us, be indifferent to us, or might actually like us.  We’ll be just fine whichever way it goes.

If you’re so inclined we’d love prayers.  For safe travel, for health while we’re there, and for an easy transition for Liremet.  One sweet friend of ours told us that she was praying that Liremet would immediately be comforted by us and sense that we were her parents.  I can’t think of a better thing to pray!

Separation Anxiety

Dolly left us today.  It’s only temporary.  She’s spending the next two weeks at my parents house.  I’m not really anxious about this (as the title of the post might imply) because I know that they love her and she will probably enjoy living with them more than she likes living with us.  But I am a little bit sad.  We came home this evening and I expected to hear the jingle jingle of her collar that always greets us when we walk in the door.  But it was just quiet.  My parents will deposit her back at our house before they come greet us at the airport upon our return from Ethiopia.  And then the fun will really begin.  How will the D-dog and the Z-dog get along, I wonder?

Compassion

I love Rob Bell’s Nooma video series.  And I love the work that Compassion International does. So today when I stumbled upon a Nooma videa that Rob Bell created for Compassion about wealth and poverty, I was excited.  You can watch it here.  It’s good stuff.  Good, challenging, thought-provoking stuff.

Today was my last day of work before my maternity leave.  This time next week, we will have met our daughter.

Dressing Baby Z

Baby girls are really fun to shop for.  Clearly, I’ve enjoyed myself.

A couple of things I would like to note, lest you think this collection of baby girl clothing seems excessive.  First of all, there is a range of sizes represented here – all the way up to 2T.  And I’ve bought A LOT of stuff second hand.  There are seriously good deals to be had on things that are in really great shape on Ebay, at consignment shops, and at garage sales.  And Gym*boree has sweet clearance sales.  I don’t want to brag about my mad bargain-shopping skills, but I honestly don’t think I’ve paid more than $15 for any one piece of clothing.  We don’t need to talk about the volume of clothes hanging in the closet.  I’ve seen worse.

I have a small obsession with these.  BabyLegs.  Legwarmers for babies.  Too cute.  It remains to be seen if they are really as practical as they seem to me before I actually have a baby, but I am in love with the idea and cuteness of them.  Baby can hang out in a onesie and legwarmers.  Supposedly it keeps baby warm and makes diaper changing easier.  Cute and practical, right?

Completely impractical shoes for a baby that does not yet walk or have cold feet and thus only wears shoes because her momma thinks they are cute.

And these socks that look like shoes, I can hardly stand it.